My father's day chat with my dad, who was a very active young man, at 79 still mows his 3 acres by hand, and was a runner until the gout took him down. (Best thing ever said to my dad at the gym: "Hey! Mister! Did you know you run like Forrest Gump?" - a 10 year old boy.)

ME: I thought of you while I was out running today.
DAD: Were you in a race?
ME: No, I ran 15 miles today, walked a couple more. I'm getting ready to run up Pike's Peak in August.
DAD: Why'd you want to do that? Can you get out of it?
ME: I don't think so. Well, technically yes. But nobody's forcing me.
DAD: That's the kind of thing people should only do if someone forces them. There's hardly any oxygen up there!
ME: Yeah, there's no way to prepare for that.
DAD: I could barely get my CAR up that mountain! I can't imagine how YOU'RE going to do it!
ME: Well, that's what we're gonna find out.
DAD: At my most fit I don't think I would have tried anything like that! When are you doing this?
ME: August 20.
DAD: When?
ME: August 20. Not til August 20.
DAD: Oh! Well you have plenty of time then...
ME: Yeah...
DAD: To back out. (pauses) Do they give you anything for doing this? Like a piece of paper that says you finished?
ME: I think you get a medal and a t-shirt.
DAD: That's good. You ought to have something to look at for the rest of your life. To remind you to ask yourself why in the world you wanted to do this stupid thing!

This whole conversation cracked me up. He also told me that if I had that kind of energy I should come mow his lawn.

Happy Father's Day, everybody.

Today's tune, which my dad used to play as a wake-up for house guests: